Tracking Treasure Down
by Asyr Sei'lar
Summary: An NRI agent working to thwart Zsinj's notorious plans and work out her feelings toward Wes Janson. This is a sort of sequel to a previous light story I wrote: "Date with Wes Janson."


**Tracking Treasure Down**

Chapter 1 : Messages From The Deep

_Star Wars copyright LucasFilm. And yes, the title was inspired by the Gabriel & Dresden song of the same name. I couldn't resist, so there._

The sun seemed as liquid as everything else on the water-world of Yangxi. Weak and watery amidst the darkening clouds, it gave what little light it could to this perpetual ocean.

Crimson-sailed solar surfers skimmed across the surface of the cold green ocean, leaving behind trails of disturbed zooplankton that lit up like Republic Day fireworks. The bioluminscent animals were prized as both light sources and food by the natives, since they were everywhere.

The slimmer of the riders clung hard to her push bar, and tilted backwards to ride the edge of her surfer. Her blonde hair flapped freely in the wind as she tilted it even more to ride under the invisible line that marked the sensor relay line for the Imperial base.

As she slowed to a stop, her dark-haired partner performed the exact same maneuver with much less grace. He glided beside her, and she let out an explosive breath. Jenna Sinclair had not been sure that they would be able to infiltrate the underwater drilling platform. Since the solar surfers took their power entirely from Yangxi's sun, it meant there was no built-up power source for the sensors to pick up, as there would have been with a ship. So far, no TIEs or water-skimmers had come to investigate their position. At least for the moment, they seemed to have made it.

They turned the push bars vertically to fold the sail away like a fan. The solar surfers were now nothing more than floating platforms and would be harder to spot. Jenna kneeled carefully to detach a bag from the base of the sail. She pulled out the fins and mask that would complete the dark dive-suit she already wore.

As soon as she slipped on the mask, she decided to test the internal communications system. « Jayden, can you hear me? » She whistled one of the more irritating tunes ever invented in the galaxy into the microphone.

« I can definitely hear you. Much more than I want to. Whoever wrote that song should have been strangled at birth. » Jayden Larris, her partner, groaned. « If we pull this off, maybe we can finally get desk jobs at NRI instead of all this running around. I'm getting a little old for this. »

« Speak for yourself, old man. This is what I live for. » With a smile that went unseen by Jayden, she launched herself over the side. Immediately, the chill of the ocean seemed to reach right down to her bones. The cold was their main enemy right now, more than any Imperial; even with the insulated dive-suit, it still got to her.

She craned her head as the water foamed around Jayden's entrance. « Blackwater? » she called through the comm.

« Blackwater, confirmed. It's going to be zero visibility down there, and we don't dare risk use our headlights. » Jayden activated the tracker floating on a tether attached to his wrist. His short dark hair floated in a cloud about his head.

Jenna began kicking downwards towards the darkness that waited to engulf them. According to their best calculations, if there was an underwater drilling platform, it was likely to be at least two thousand feet underwater. This was the shallowest spot on the entirety of the Yangxi ocean floor. It was manageable on one tank, but it was still a very long way to swim down.

If they timed it right, though, they would be able to hitch a ride down.

« Think we'll be able to do it? » Jenna whispered through the comm. It had become so dark just fifty feet down that they were like caricatures.

« Ah, maybe....there! » The blue lights burned through the murkiness. Jenna turned her head partially before she could be blinded by the light, thereby retaining her night vision. They linked hands and began to swim toward it. Water foamed around it as it sank to their level. Eventually, she could see its outline : one of the convertible shuttle-to-submersible nicknamed water-skimmers.

Jenna let go of Jayden's hand to grab onto one of the bars protruding from the water-skimmer, Jayden drifted over towards an emergency hatch and held on tight. The ship shuddered underneath them as it switched to the more water-proof engines, then began to sink. Just before the light disappeared completely, Jayden gave her a tight grin.

And then she could see nothing more.


End file.
